Brain and spine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Brain and spine - Essay Example Thus, it is oxygenated in lungs, and de-oxygenated once it passes through tissues (Guyton and Hall, 2006). Because of its liquid nature, it is able to seep through spaces once a vascular injury occurs. We usually see it as bruising of the skin, when trauma causes breakage in the thin-walled capillaries in the dermis. The bruising then recedes with time, and the skin goes back to its previous appearance as if nothing happened. The same may not be applicable to other organs, more notably the brain. Although there is no obvious bruising similar to that seen on the skin, brain hemorrhages present with more serious signs of paralysis or changes in the sensorium, as caused by the ischemia and neuronal death of the area in the brain that should have been perfused by the injured vessel. Soon, ischemia of some brain tissue results to irreversible neurologic dysfunction. Prompt management is thus needed before neurologic defects become permanent (Kumar et al., 2010). The age of hemorrhage is important because it determines the management of intracranial hemorrhage, as will be discussed later. The stages of hematoma are based on the form of hemoglobin in RBCs. Initially, during the hyper-acute phase or hours after the development of the lesion, hematoma is made up of a liquid suspension of intact RBCs containing oxy- or deoxy-hemoglobin. If the blood came from an arterial source, which is the case in most non-traumatic etiologies such as aneurysm, approximately 95% of hemoglobin molecules are oxygenated. Later, water is resorbed by the brain tissue, resulting to a solidified aggregation of RBCs. As the blood ages further, the hemoglobin denatures from oxy- or deoxy- to met-hemoglobin. This transformation is dependent on the oxidation of ferrous (Fe+2) heme iron contained by oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin to ferric (Fe+3) state, turning the protein into